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Note from Lisa: If you’re a busy mom boss, you need reliable tools you can count on to quickly get the job done. Canva is one of those tools. It’s one I’ve been using for years (first the free version and more recently the pro one). But though I alluded to it in previous posts, I never really took the time to explain why I use Canva. Thankfully, Sarah recognized this and pitched a great post about why moms should use Canva for their businesses.
She did a great job summing up all the reasons to give Canva a try if you haven’t yet. So take it away Sarah…
If you are a busy mompreneur, using Canva for business success is an easy, inexpensive (or free) option that can save you hours. As a mom, you know that there are never enough minutes to do all the things you MUST do in a day. NEVER. Shortcuts and hacks are essential to finishing the daily “to do” list.
And if you are a business owner, one shortcut you should consider is using Canva for your graphic and print needs. Whether your business is brand new, or off the ground, and running well, Canva offers solutions for your graphic, image, social media, and editing needs that can’t be matched!
Do I Need the Pro Version of Canva?
Canva is ideal for any business owner because it offers a free version that is excellent and has great starter features. They also offer a paid version (currently $12.99 a month) that has premium features. You can expect the free version to have abundant choices of photos, graphics, templates, and fonts which is perfect if you are just getting started.
The paid version has premium versions of all of these and is easily worth the monthly investment for the amount of time you will save.
Note from Lisa: Start with the free version. Then, when your business is generating enough income to cover the expense, pay for it. And remember to write it off as a business expense!
Here are 7 Reasons Every Mom Boss Should Use Canva for Business Success
1. No Experience Is Needed to Design Eye-Catching Graphics
If you have ever dabbled with graphic design software, you will know that there is a huge learning curve to most of it….and a big price tag! You can spend hours just trying to make one small adjustment and still not be happy with the final result.
But Canva solves this problem with its easy “click” solutions to:
- remove the background from photos (paid version)
- shade, edit, and size photos and shapes
- change fonts & colors
With just a click or two, you can make simple adjustments that are intuitive and simple to remember for next time.
2. Canva Includes thousands of licensed photos
If you have ever tried to find the perfect photo to use for your social media or printables, you will know that aside from a few “royalty-free” sites, most of the time, you will need to pay for images or use your own. And often when you pay for images, you are paying PER IMAGE or are paying a monthly subscription which means the cost can add up fast.
Canva solves this problem by offering an easily searchable library of photos and graphics of just about anything you can imagine. Both the Free and Paid versions include this treasure trove of images which you can use for social media, blog posts, printables, and more!
3. Canva is cloud-based which makes working on the go easy!
Do you ever find yourself wishing you could use those small pockets of time better? You know what I mean…waiting in the school pickup line, or waiting for your kids to finish practice…or waiting for dinner to finish baking. Whatever it is, we all have these smallish chunks of time that are sometimes hard to use. Well, Canva is cloud-based which means you can use it on the go from your phone!
Now when you have small pockets of time, you can easily pull up a list of graphics you need to make…and get working. Just a few clicks here and there and you will have designer worthy images in minutes!
4. Canva makes it EASY to recycle and repurpose graphics
What if you could make a Facebook post. Then click a button and have a Pinterest-sized image…and another click to have it ready for Instagram or any other platform. Canva’s paid option has a wonderful “resize” option which lets you resize an image you have already made to a new size. Once it is newly sized, you can adjust the graphics to make them fit the new space and in just a minute, you have your new graphic!
This time-saving feature allows you to reuse your creative graphics almost endlessly making it a huge asset!
5. Canva’s built-in scheduler makes creating a social media content calendar easy and painless!
Imagine creating your image and then clicking on the calendar to write the post and schedule it for some future date. In a couple of hours, you can easily fill in your social media calendar using Canva’s scheduler.
At a glance, you can see your month and know where you need posts. Canva allows you to link your account to all of your social media accounts so you can schedule your content and forget about it.
I don’t know about you, but one of my big “fears” for my social media account is that my life will get busy and then I won’t have time to post. Using Canva’s scheduler lets you fill up your social media calendar when you have extra time so that busy days you are still posting. This is just one more great tool in Canva for business success.
6. Build your branding kit in Canva
Whether your business is new or simply needs to rebrand inexpensively, Canva’s branding kit makes it easy to assemble all your essential elements in one place for easy use in Canva.
A Branding Kit includes your brand:
- Fonts
- Colors
- Logos
If you are all new to branding, Canva has built-in color palette combinations that you can start with and modify.
This branding kit that you make is so helpful because when you are making your graphics for your blog or social media, Canva offers these to you as your first choice before all the other choices. It makes it easy to stay on brand without searching for which colors and fonts you used last time!
7. Canva has a huge template library of infographics and printables
Whether you need printable for freebies or to add to a post, Canva has you covered. Its huge library of templates makes it easy to customize printables for almost any need. If they don’t have what you need, you can use their designs as inspiration to create your own.
It also includes a huge selection of infographics which can be time-consuming to put together. Now all you need to do is edit the text and maybe the images and you can have an infographic with your information in just a few minutes.
Important: Read the terms and conditions closely before you sell anything you create with a Canva template. You don’t want to violate copyright laws.
Use Canva for Business Success to Save Time & Money
Whether you need to save time or money, Canva is a tool that can help you do both. Canva reminds me of the handy multi-tool my husband keeps on his belt. It’s a knife…scissors…corkscrew…nail file and saw all in one. Similarly, Canva provides so much value to the working mom that it just makes sense to try it out!
Click here to get started with Canva!
For even more free tools that can help you grow your business, check out these posts:
The Top 9 Free Tools for Freelance Writers
5 Essential Free Tools You Need as a Virtual Assistant
Sarah
Sarah lives with her husband and 9 children in NE Ohio. She writes about parenting & education at TenMinuteMomentum.com.